GAME ONE, LEHIGH AT HOLY CROSS – Crusaders and Mountain Hawks Can’t Afford Early Season Jitters
BETHLEHEM, PA – Lehigh/Holy Cross games are supposed to happen in November.
They are supposed to take place at Murray Goodman Stadium or Fitton Field just after frost on the Halloween pumpkins, perhaps with a crisp cool breeze of fall air, or perhaps the last gasps of warm temperatures. Holy Cross/Lehigh games are intended to be enjoyed with spiked hot chocolate, mulled wine, or maybe some brandy mixed with hot tea.
Yet here we are.
Thanks to the additions of Villanova and William & Mary to the Patriot League, a game that has recently had huge league implications for both the Crusaders (0-0, 0-0 Patriot) and Mountain Hawks (0-0, 0-0 Patriot) will now take place at a time no other Lehigh/Holy Cross matchup has ever taken place – the week before Labor Day.
It’s more like Spiked Chocolate Milkshake than spiked hot chocolate.
For Holy Cross, it’s not only the earliest time they’ve played Lehigh – it’s the earliest game in program historym and their first home game in the month of August since the 2012 season.
That’s not all that’s going to be new in Worcester.
“We know it’s going to be a very physical game,” Lehigh head coach Rich Nagy said this week. “We know they’re going to come ready to play.”
Holy Cross is no stranger to tough, early, physical matchups – they played Rhode Island to a standstill early last season, and have given FBS teams opening weekend fits as well.
And the last time Lehigh played up in Worcester, it was a gutty, physical classic that went down to the wire. Fitton Field hasn’t been an easy place to play for the Mountain Hawks, and their 10-7 win up there in 2024 came down to a blocked game-tying field goal attempt as time expired.
“We also know that they got nineteen players that transferred in that we have some idea on, but not really how they’re gonna utilize them. Their coordinators are all brand new,” Nagy added.
In a way that makes this game for No. 11-ranked Lehigh kind of terrifying.
Holy Cross on Satruday bring into the game so many unknowns, so many talented transfers like 300 lb OL Kuba Tyska (North Dakota) and 6’6 315 lb OL Theo Bacheider (Old Dominion), that it could be that a highly-touted Mountain Hawks team playing in their first game need to have some time to adjust to what the Crusaders will be doing on offense.
At running back, a rotation involving RB Joseph Williams, RB Datrell Jones (transfer from Boston College) and RB Jake Croce (transfer from St. Anselm) will probably little resemble the Holy Cross rushing attack that didn’t get well established in last years 38-10 Mountain Hawks win.
DE Andrew Sharga hinted this week that this is a battle fans should keep an eye on this weekend.
“Definitely one thing we prioritize as a defense is stopping the run,” he said this week at the media luncheon. “Especially for the defensive line, our biggest priority is making sure other teams don’t run the ball. We’re going in with that mentality every single week, especially this week.”
There’s even (perhaps manufactured) uncertainty at quarterback, when QB Cal Swanson is returning from injury, and highly-touted QB David Lynch (transfer from Pitt) have an OR next to them in the depth chart.
As for Lehigh – they are a known quanitity on offense.
Holy Cross head coach Dan Curran is quite aware of the rushing abilities of RB Luke Yoder, the preseason Patriot League offensive player of the year and Walter Payton Award candidate. He knows his defense needs to stop him, and he has loads of film on QB Hayden Johnson, now in his third season as a junior as signalcaller of the Lehigh offense.
Even most of the receiving corps is a known quantity, like WR Matt D’Avino, WR Logan Galetta and others, as well as most of the offensive line, like OL Aidan Palmer. Lehigh is not going to suddenly become a run-and-shoot team this weekend.
“They have a new defensive coordinator coming in, so that will present some challenges,” TE Joseph Marranca added this week. “One of the biggest challenges is trrying to figure out what we want to bring into this game, keep the playbook a bit open. Ultimately, we want to foucs on ourselves and what we want to do, we’ll be fine going into that game.”
Complicating matters is Holy Cross will be competing with a brand-new defensive line, where DE Cooper Ackerman (UConn) and DE Rushaune Vilane (Kentucky) are vying for a spot at defensive end. Like at QB, there is an “OR” next to both names on their depth chart.
“Both will be instrumental to what we’re doing up front,” Curran said this week. “Rushaune is physical and nasty and really good in the run game, and he continues to improve in the pass game. Cooper has an amazing motor, too, and he has really developed a lot since he got here. They will both be a big part of what we’re doing not only on first and second down, but on third down as well.”
Lehigh as well will be playing with a new-look defensive line, who sees LB Tyler Ochojski, DE Matt Spatny, and NT T.J. Burke graduate from last season, one of the best defensive lines in Patriot League history. There’s good reason to believe, though, that a lot of the same rotational players on the defensive line, like DT Jadin Nelson, will continue the defensive culture on which Lehigh’s success the past two years have been based.
Also, with DB Nick Peltekian returning for one more season (28 tackles, 1 INT, 1 Forced Fumble), and LB William Parton (63 tackles, 5 TFL), there’s a lot of veteran leadership that should help establish Lehigh’s defense up in Worcester. CB DJ Brown and LB Jackson Dowd also return, which shows a stronger veteran core on the Mountain Hawk defense than might appear at first.
LEHIGH MOUNTAIN HAWKS (0-0. 0-0 Patriot) AT HOLY CROSS CRUSADERS (0-0, 0-0 Patriot)
WHERE: Fitton Field/Worcester, MA, Saturday, August 29h, 3:30 PM
TV: Spectrum News 1 (Worcester Area)
STREAMING: ESPN+ PxP – Kevin Gehl; Analyst – Kevin Shea; Sideline – Rachel Hopmayer
RADIO: BROADCAST (Fox Sports Lehigh Valley 94.7 FM/1230 AM; LVFoxSports.com):
RADIO CREW: PxP – Matt Kerr; Analyst – Steve Lomangino; Sideline – Connor Brown
Chuck has been writing about Lehigh football since the dawn of the internet, or perhaps it only seems like it. He’s executive editor of the College Sports Journal and has also written a book, The Rivalry: How Two Schools Started the Most Played College Football Series.
Reach him at: this email or click below:
